Vatican’s Cricket Team

As ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 completes this week, ESPN’s SC Featured tells the story of the Vatican’s Cricket team, with the feature debuting in the 10 a.m. ET edition of SportsCenter on Sunday, March 22, and re-airing in other editions of the program throughout the day.

Formed in 2012 as a way to spread faith and goodwill, the St. Peter’s Eleven is comprised of priests and priests-in-training who take on a formidable foe – the Church of England – in the team’s first official match.  As Jeremy Schaap reports, nothing is at stake, except the pride of two churches with 1.3 billion adherents between them, in a match 500 years in the making. A version of the story also will appear on ESPNCricInfo.com.

Some quotes from the feature:
“I am an ordained minister, so I’ll just say that we’re going to play with grace, the fruits of the spirit you know. I’m sure if anyone sneezes they’ll be a lot of ‘bless you’s.’”Rev. Chris Lee, batsman for Church of England team.

Q&A
Jeremy Schaap — “With all due respect I think we have to agree though the odds are against St. Peters?”

John McCarthy.  Australia’s ambassador to the Vatican — “Well yes but you’d say that the odds were against David in David and Goliath.”